I think the difference is that, while both Russia and Germany are federations on paper, Germany is much less centralized.
- to the best of my knowledge, 3.5% would be military spending, and 1.5% could be other "defence" spending (as others have already written).
Still, not fun with the 3.5%/5%. Overshooting, typical for "weapons as war repellent" strategy (and unfortunately, expanded military often does not want to stay idle...)
Smart! I use Joplin and Koofr for shorter notes. Switching to LibreOffice Writer from Word, and shared files, for longer texts. But all depends on how you like to write ¯_(ツ)_/¯
https://koofr.eu/blog/posts/how-to-backup-your-joplin-notes-to-koofr